Barack Obama: Connecticut school shooting was 'worst day of my presidency'

Barack Obama has described the Connecticut school massacre as the "worst
day of my presidency" as he reiterated his desire to introduce new gun
control measures during the first year of his second term.

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Barack Obama attends a vigil held at Newtown High SchoolPhoto: REUTERS

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The emotion is visible on the president's face as he speaks at a memorial service for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootingPhoto: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

President Obama has already set up a task force, led by vice president Joe Biden, to come up with proposals to tighten America's firearms laws in the wake of the massacre in Newtown, which left 26 people, including 20 children, dead.

In an interview with NBC's Meet the Press, he said: "I'd like to get it done in the first year.

"I will put forward a very specific proposal based on the recommendations that Joe Biden's task force is putting together as we speak. And so this is not something that I will be putting off."

In the interview Obama also said he was "sceptical" of a proposal by the National Rifle Association (NRA) which called for armed security in US schools following the tragedy.

"I am not going to prejudge the recommendations that are given to me," he said. "I am sceptical that the only answer is putting more guns in schools. And I think the vast majority of the American people are sceptical that that somehow is going to solve our problem." "The question then becomes whether we are actually shook up enough by what happened here that it does not just become another one of these routine episodes where it gets a lot of attention for a couple of weeks and then it drifts away," he said.

"It certainly won't feel like that to me. This is something that you know, that was the worst day of my presidency. And it's not something that I want to see repeated."

The President's comments came as two US cities reminded its residents not to fire guns into the air in celebration at New Year.

Officials in Los Angeles warned that anyone doing so would face a possible three-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine (£6,000). The city's mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said: "Nothing ruins the holiday season like an errant bullet coming down and killing an innocent."

City officials in Cleveland, Ohio, made a similar warning. Martin Flask, the city's public safety director, said: "When a firearm is discharged, the bullet will travel a path until it strikes someone or something. What goes up will most assuredly come down."